Computerized devices control almost every aspect of our life—from writing documents to controlling traffic lights. However, computerized devices are bug-prone, and thus require a testing phase in which the bugs should be discovered. The testing phase is considered one of the most difficult tasks in designing a computerized device. The cost of not discovering a bug may be enormous, as the consequences of the bug may be disastrous. For example, a bug may cause the injury of a person relying on the designated behavior of the computerized device. Additionally, a bug in hardware or firmware of a marketed product may be expensive to fix, as patching it requires call-back of the computerized device. Hence, many developers of computerized devices invest a substantial portion of the development cycle to discover erroneous behaviors of the computerized device.
The target computerized system may be a processor, a microprocessor, an electronic circuit, an integrated circuit, a chipset, a computerized device comprising a processor or the like. Testing such devices may comprise one or more pre-silicon stages and/or one or more post-silicon stages.
During the pre-silicon stages, devices are generally tested in a computerized environment simulating the functionality of the devices, such as using HDL simulator, and hardware accelerators. In pre-silicon stages, the target computerized system may be described using a descriptive language, such as for example Verilog or VHDL.
Post-silicon validation and debug is generally the last step in the functional verification of a computerized device. Post-silicon validation tests occur on the actual hardware, generally running at-speed in commercial, real-world system boards.